recolle | [CLOSED] Nightmares

[CLOSED] Nightmares

WHO: Mrs. Elizabeth Brisby and Kamui Brisby
WHERE: The Brisby home
WHEN: 4:30am, Thanksgiving day
WHAT: After a nasty, all-too-vivid nightmare, Mrs. Brisby decides to get a head start on thanksgiving preparation before she tries to sleep again.
WARNINGS: N/A

[Mrs. Brisby was, normally, an early bird... but it'd been a long time since dreams had woken her up as early as four in the morning. Thanks to the frustrations involving Retrospec and failed communications, her kids weren't going to see their grandparents this year. Hopefully Christmas wouldn't be as much of a disaster. But that didn't mean Elizabeth would give up on Thanksgiving.

Back when she still had nightmares after Jonathan's death, or when Kamui was still sick, she would get up and do dishes. With the holiday to prepare for, she decided to take out the turkey she had bought and... and...

After a half hour of skimming through facebook, youtube and some cooking sites, she decided to debone the turkey. It seemed suitably difficult, which meant it'd be easier for her to tire herself to go back to sleep again, and keep her mind off of the monstrous cat that was chasing her in her nightmare. She's not as quiet as she thinks she is, between the snapping of joints as she carefully removes the turkey's thigh bones and the soft voice of an instructional video on deboning turkeys. She doesn't really realize that she's making any sort of racket, assuming her sons are going to sleep right through it.]

Oh, fiddlesticks.

[She halfheartedly mumbles, realizing she's cut into skin.]

Drat, where's my cooking twine...

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[There's a flash of light behind her, the flash of a cellphone camera. After a second flash, Kamui lowers the phone from in front of his face so that he can check out his masterpiece of photography.

His hair is down, freed from its perpetual braid, and he's sporting a pair of old sweatpants beneath an oversized t-shirt. Everything from his unruly bedhead to his bare feet signals that he just crawled out of hibernation, but his eyes are alert. He's been awake for at least half an hour now, listening.]

Two drawers to the left.

[Elizabeth jolts, hand resting over her chest as she gasps dramatically then sighs in relief.]

You scared the dickens out of me! I didn't wake you up, did I?

Whoops, you did. [He snickers as he holds up the phone to share. There on the screen is a lovely picture of Elizabeth jumping out of her skin in surprise.] But I got payback.

So why are you up? We're not having Thanksgiving breakfast, you know.

[She takes a second to catch her breath, shaking her head a bit at the video taken of her.]

I can still have this thing prepared before I bake it... but you're right. I didn't mean to wake up, but I couldn't fall back asleep once I had.

[She can shake her head all she wants. He's not deleting that photo. At least not until he finds something funnier on the internet.

He leans over her to get a whiff of turkey. Even unprepared, unstuffed, and uncooked, the scent is enough to make him hungry.]

What, did one of the little dudes fart in front of your door or something?

No, no. I had a surprisingly vivid dream, and I can't get back to sleep.

[She sighs, picking the boning knife back up to keep gently cutting the bones out.]

It was strange, and a little frightening.

[That gets him to pause, and his attention shifts from the food to his mother's petite shoulder. His smile thins.]

Must've been bad if you couldn't get back to sleep.

Well, it sounds a little silly just saying it out loud, but I had a dream where I was a field mouse trying to run away from a cat. It didn't sound or really look like one... or, I suppose it did, but I was a mouse so it just seemed different.

[She manages to remove the last of the bones, setting them in a plastic bag to use for gravy later.]

It seemed so... real. I've never had a dream quite like that one.

[He's still staring down at her shoulder. He can't meet her eyes.]

How real?

Like a memory, more than a dream.

[She rubs her eyes with the back of her hand, avoiding her messy fingers getting in contact with her eyes.]

I really am tired... I'm not making any sense.

[Kamui's stare drops down to his phone. He flips the screen toward the Retrospec app. He looks at it, and he scowls. Then he shoves his phone into his sweat pants.]

I talked to some monster chick last week.

[She glances up, looking at Kamui. He's been more upset lately, she's noticed...

She grabs a towel, wiping her hands off as she turned to face her son.]

What's wrong, sweetheart? You can tell me.

I just did. I talked to some monster chick last week. We gambled. I lost. I'm pretty sure she was crazy. The whole thing was crazy.

But it felt more like a memory than a dream.

[The problem isn't that she's not making any sense. It's that she's making perfect sense, and it pisses him off.

Why'd Retrospec have to mess with her too?]

[More like a memory than a dream...]

Is there really something to this whole... "other life" thing?

No, no... that'd mean that I'm a mouse. That's ridiculous... it must just be the odd things going on giving us strange ideas.

[Kamui leans back against the counter, but he's hardly relaxed. He just needs a surface to grind his elbows against, a drawer to tap his heel into.]

I kept chatting with some of the assholes from that Retrospec announcement. I even met up with a couple of them, two of those bastards who said they had powers from their past lives.

I don't know about this other life bullshit, but the powers? Those were real. There are some serious monsters in this city.

Watch your mouth... if you need something to do, we could get the bread rolls started.

[Then again, cooking and cleaning are the things that she likes to fall back on to help process or ignore her troubles.]

I want you and your brothers to stay safe. If there's dangerous people, keep your little brothers away.

Yeah, yeah...

[He sighs as he pushes off the counter and begins his search for a bowl and saucepan.]

Like I'd tell any of them about this weird ass shi- about this crazy Retrospec garbage. Your precious chicks are safe with big bro as their bodyguard. I'm more worried about you.

You're one of my "precious chicks", too, Kamui. If something happened to you, I...

[Urgh.]

It's too early for me to think like this... you're all safe and doing just fine. We'll have a great thanksgiving.

["You're one of my 'precious chicks' too, Kamui."

That's part of the problem. She's stuck with him, and there's no way in hell she deserves that.]

Yeah, and it'll be one hundred per cent devil-cat free. I guarantee it.

Good. Goodness, this cat was ugly, though! It looked like an angry, burly man with a scruffy mustache, and it was fat as anything. And it had this creepy blue eye that might've been blind, and claws as long as my forearm - well, when I was a mouse, that is.

[Maybe if she jokes about it, she won't be as freaked out.]

Are you sure it didn't also have an eye patch and a hook paw?

[The edge of his lips curl upwards despite his irritation. Perhaps because of it.]

"Ahoy, meowties! These kibbles be rougher than the waves."

[Either way, it makes Mrs. Brisby laugh.]

Wasn't that a character in a kids movie? I can barely remember.

Well, it was a movie I watched as a kid. I don't think you could call it a kid's movie though.

[Once again, Kamui avoids eye contact. This time it's for a very different reason.]

Hmm.

[She's tired. He's tired. She can also tell he's upset.]

What's wrong, Kamui? You can tell me.

[Siiiiigh, stop being so observant, Mom.]

You said... you were a mouse? In the dream, I mean.

Yes, that's right. A brown field mouse.

I just wasn't expecting that. [He shrugs. What else can he say while he's still so in the dark about everything?] I didn't feel any different in mine. It makes me wonder, is all.

[He doesn't like to wonder. Everything is so much simpler when he doesn't care.]

Well, maybe mine really was just a dream. Or maybe yours was.

Maybe. [He shakes his head.] I don't like not knowing. I'll just have to find some way to figure it out.

Well, just remember. No matter what's going on, or how we change, I'm still your mother, and you're still my son. I never believed in the whole past life thing, but it doesn't change anything.

[At least, so she helps.]

Obviously. As if I could get rid of a busybody like you.

[Despite his choice diction, his shoulders relax, and he snorts in quiet amusement.]

Of course not! That's my job, after all. I'm going to nag you for years to come.

And I'm going to make you wish you'd had a daughter.

I don't need any prompting for that, I would've managed with five if I had a daughter.

Buy me a skirt, and I'll make you regret that you ever said anything.

Or, you could work on settling down with a nice girl and plan on giving me some grandkids.

...

I'd rather have the skirt.

You're too rough around the edges. I'd want a girl I could gossip with.

[She'd say "and sew and cook with" but her sons have actually been pretty good about that one.]

If I had a daughter I'd love nothing more than to tease her about boys flirting with her. "But moooom", she'd whine, just like I did when I was little.

[Kamui takes several seconds to fake gag off to the side, as if he's trying to hide it from her. Yet he's clearly not trying to hide it from her.]

Have you tried that giggly Russian girl who used to visit? Katsuki's girlfriend.

[Elizabeth very loudly and dramatically gasps, though it's definitely not acting. She whirls around, eyes wide.]

Katsuki has a girlfriend? And he didn't tell me!

[Another gasp!]

Oh!! Does he think I'll meddle?

Eh. [He shrugs.] He's at that age where he can't tell mommy anything. It'd be embarrassing if you learned about his hangnail, let alone his girl.

Oh, I wouldn't embarrass him publicly! Oh, fiddlesticks, I better not bother him today...

[SHE WANTS TO...]

Could you though? I will pay you in chores.

No. We all promised no fights on holidays. They're stressful enough! And I'm already going to be too sleep-deprived to deal with it...

Okay, okay. [He's just going to pat his poor, tired mother on her head.] I will sacrifice my entertainment so you can sleep soundly tonight. You deserve that much.

You need a more productive hobby.

[A GREAT BIG SIGH.]

I guess I should check on your tools for smithing to see if you need anything new.

Jewelers saw!

[Instantaneously.]

Oh, those finicky things do love to snap, don't they. I'll get you a few after work. An early stocking stuffer, mind you.

Aaaand sold! To the beautiful angel who gave me life!

[Kamui may have a frustratingly endless amount of flaws, but at the very least, he is easily bribed. The promise of not just one but several of those dainty saw blades quickly shuts him up. He even hums as he finally gets started on that bread dough for the rolls.

This Thanksgiving he will be an absolute doll.]

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[CLOSED] Nightmares

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